Another Studio Ready to Resurrect the DEAD ISLAND Movie

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Hey, your dreams of seeing the Dead Island trailer as a feature-length film are one step closer to coming true. Over the weekend, Dead Island publisher Koch Media announced that they’d signed a deal with Occupant Entertainment to develop a film based on the zombie first-person action-adventure game.

Developed by Deep Silver, Dead Island doesn’t have what you’d call a deep well of fiction: set on a tropical resort island, the first game followed survivors in the wake of a zombie outbreak as they attempted to get away from the living dead and make their escape. The semi-sequel, Dead Island: Riptide turned to a handful of uninfected whose rescue goes awry thanks to a massive storm which helps spread the plague to neighboring islands.

This is the second attempt at a Dead Island feature: back in 2011, Saw studio Lionsgate announced plans to make a movie based on the first game just months after its release, but that project ultimately fell apart.

The press release makes a point of touting the popularity of the trailer for the just-announced Dead Island 2 (which you can see below). The goofy (and admittedly really fun) clip is a total 180 from the super-sombre reverse-action trailer for the first game. That has me wondering if Koch and Occupant are going for more of a Zombieland/Shaun of the Dead vibe with the film (or if they’re just pointing out that they give good trailer).

Occupant would be a good home for the film as they’re a smaller studio with a proven track record. Case in point: they’re behind the indie darling All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, a self-aware slasher flick from 50/50 and Warm Bodies director Jonathan Levine. They’re also producing the demonic thriller The Woods for director Corin Hardy.

So now that it’s happening, what would you want in a Dead Island movie? Is the zombie genre ready for some fresh meat?